MY SEATTLE

Home Business Rules

What Is It?

You’re allowed to run a business out of your home in Seattle as long as it doesn’t interfere with other residents in the neighborhood. The home occupation rules in our Seattle Municipal Code (SMC) contain limits designed to minimize the impact your commercial activity has on your residential neighborhood.

What It Isn’t

This code section does not cover:

Illegal businesses in commercial properties

Bed and breakfasts

Rules to Follow

Our ordinance requires that you:

Live in the unit where you operate your home business

Limit the number of your employees to two, in addition to you

Limit deliveries to your business to one a day on weekdays

Use only small signs to identify your business from the outside to discourage drop-in traffic

Limit signs in single-family zones to the name of the occupant, not the business name (for example Joe Smith, Attorney at Law, not Seattle Premier Attorneys)

In addition, your business cannot produce noise, odors, or other emissions that can be detected from your property line. You cannot change the character of the dwelling from residential to commercial. Our rules are slightly different for home-based child care programs. Bed and breakfasts are subject to different rules.

Read the Code

Fines

If you violate the home occupation standards you could be charged penalties of $150 to $500 a day. Your fines can accumulate if you do not correct the violation in a timely way. We will also charge for inspections.